Tag Archives: Sarah Austin

My earliest known (to me) Ellis ancestor is JOHN ELLIS, born about 1685 in Nottoway Parish, Virginia. John had at least three wives (probably four); my ancestor (I think!) is Mary (surname perhaps Bradley).

Their daughter Elizabeth Ellis married Thomas Walker.

Thomas Walker Sr. may be the grandson of one THOMAS WALKER who died circa 1760. In this Thomas’s will he names a son, Thomas, and two grandsons Thomas. One is the son of a deceased son and the other is Thomas, son of Thomas. To this grandson Thomas, son of Thomas, he leaves a slave, a mulatto boy, Lewis.

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In the 1784 Lunenburg County, Virginia Tax Records, Thomas Walker Jr. has a slave listed as Lewis.

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WILL OF JOHN ELLIS of Nottoway Parish
January 14, 1762
Probated April 22, 1762 by James Beuford
Filed Amelia County, Will Book 2, pp 21-32(?)

Leg: son William Ellis, 600 acres adjacent lines of Hardaway, Wade, Finney, Samuel Smith, line to be run from Hampton Wade’s lower corner near Jack’s branch to Finney’s nearest corner, but with condition that my son William Ellis pay my son Austin Ellis 50 pounds current Va. money in 3 years after my decease; if he refuses, then I give aforementioned land to my son Richard Ellis, and he pay son Austin 60 pounds to be raised out of my estate & paid by Ex. within 3 years after my decease; son Thomas Ellis; Thomas Walker & Betty his wife, 400 acres L/S Horsepen Creek, being land Walker now lives on & laid off by William Stokes; wife Elizabeth Ellis, labor & profits of 17 Negroes to maintain her & her family, & use & profits of plantation, together with 600 acres adj. for life or widowhood, then to son Richard Ellis; son Richard Ellis, 17 slaves, stock & furn. on plantation, also 16 other slaves, and 638 acres, the plantation he now lives on, incl. mill & land adj. both sides Great Nottoway River, & all rem. of my est.; son Richard Ellis to provide proper support & maintenance for my dau. Sarah Winn; George, Judy & Fanny [slaves] to continue to live on my plantation and not be put under an overseer; son Richard Ellis to manage and direct estate.

Genealogy research is addictive and certainly not everyone’s Cup of Tea.

Now, I realize that no one is interested in my Ellis/Walker/Sammon ancestors – except others who may be researching these particular families. And I’m hoping that – by happenstance – fellow researchers will come across this site and we can exchange family information.

Ellis County is named for Richard Ellis, President of Texas’ Constitutional Convention, March, 1836. Mr. Ellis had no direct link to the county. He was a famous Texan whom the state felt needed to be remembered.

Other biographical information:

Born in Virginia, 1781

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, 1820

Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and President of the Constitutional Convention, 1836

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Throw off the bowlines

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain

life is this simple

Life is this simple.

Life is this simple.
We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent
and God is shining through it all the time.
This is not just a fable or a nice story
It is true.
If we abandon ourselves to God
and forget ourselves,
we see it sometimes
and we see it maybe frequently.
God shows Godself everywhere,
In everything,
In people and in things and in nature and in events.
It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and
in everything and we cannot be without God.
It is impossible.
The only thing is that we don't see it.
- Thomas Merton